The city of Ashgabat – capital of Turkmenistan – is dominated by monuments to one man’s megalomania – former President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov. Take, for example, the 75m tall Arch of Neutrality, which he subtly topped with a 12m gold-plated statue of himself. Not content with just a normal statue, he had it created such that it would rotate through the course of each day so it was always facing the sun. 1 The Arch is an indication that this former Soviet republic declared itself permanently neutral after the Soviet Union fell apart. While this foreign policy initiative had…